galactic_cruciblesfandomcom-20200215-history
Story:What can I Become
What can I Become is the second story of the Siran Narek story arc, as well as the sequel to Siran Narek's origin story, Who am I. Without Krikor Avakian to accompany her, Siran feels lonelier than ever. However, when rumors reach her that her creator, Heinrich Von Brandt, may very well be alive, despite Siran's knowledge of the contrary, she sees this as a chance to, once and for all, defeat her inner doubts...or learn that they were more than just doubts. Chapter 1: Looking Back Running, looking behind, and running again. The raiders kept pursuing her tenaciously. She ducked into another room, and watched with relief as the raiders passed her by... Then, she was transported to a cockpit, with a raider captain smiling maliciously as he fired on innocent transports. Her instincts kicked in: she shot the pilot and took over the ship, firing on the other raiders, before fleeing. Finally, her ship was on the ground, resting, she looked around, making sure everything was clear. Finally, she could rest...but the data chips seemed so promising, that she had no choice, but to take a look at one of them... Siran awoke with a start. It's been about 2 weeks since Krikor Avakian, the best person to have ever entered her life, was forced to leave her, due to a dangerous artifact he found. Ever since, her recharge cycles caused her to be visited by past events. Her dreams the past night were on her escape from the raiders responsible for her being in her situation...although, if she never came to be here, she'd have never met Krikor. She left her room, and prepared to eat. However, as she ate, flashbacks of her time with Krikor began... She was trapped in an alley, several creatures closing in on her. However, as they prepared to strike her, a metallic spike impaled them. Then, a tripodic alien leapt down and killed another. Finally, a human appeared, and he and the other creature finished her assailants off. He approached her...then offered to help her to her feet... Then, she was talking to the same human she saw before. She herself was only speaking in broken sentences, while the human patiently tried to teach her more un-broken sentences. He seemed to be talking in even tones, as if being patient with her...like he cared... Finally, she and the human were in an alley, the human with some kind of kinetic accelerator and her with a plasma carbine. They were both firing on enemy raiders trying to steal their loot. However, one raider got a hit on her, and the human, enraged, fought with increased ferocity, as she herself tried to close the wound. Then, the human came down to try to help her...and was shocked at the clear fluid leaking out the cut arm... Siran snapped herself out of her thoughts, realizing her mind was drifting again. She decided to go back to training, in order to keep herself occupied. She picked up her Plasma Carbine, and moved to a section of the ship Krikor had set up as a target practice area. She aimed at the target and fired. After missing, Siran aimed and tried again, this time hitting the target's edge. Then she tired again, and again, and again...finally hitting the target dead center. Next, she moved off, looking over her med kit. She went through the kit, making sure everything was in there that would be needed in case of an emergency, then went through what each item in there was for. However, as she reached the antiseptics, her mind drifted again... ""Damn...what of the guy in charge of the whole thing? He still alive?" "No...old fool died in the crossfire..." She managed to snap herself out of it, before her mind wandered further. But the damage of that memory was done: with her creator dead, and Krikor gone, off hiding to protect Siran, Siran was truly alone...and again, Siran remembered that... Chapter 2: On the Hunt The next day, Siran got up and went to go get breakfast. However, when she looked through her rations, she realized that she was running low on food. She had little option but to take some of the scrap that was still there and trade it for more food. She took some of the more valuable scrap, some still-usable electronics, and left the ship. She no longer feared meeting Krikor's pursuers: had they wanted to raid the ship, they'd have done so by now. Siran was certain they'd move on in chasing Krikor down. As she moved through the market for a potential buyer for the scrap, her audio receptors picked up multiple conversations. She tried to tune them all out...until one conversation caught her ear. "...They said they were chasing some kind of engineer or scientist...some old human by the name of "Heinrich Von Brandt"..." This caused Siran to stop in her tracks. "Heinrich Von Brandt...my creator?" she thought to herself. Last she'd heard, he'd died in the crossfire when the raiders that originally stole her had attacked the lab...could he actually be alive? "Only one way to find out," she thought. As she approached the female Vaikan who'd mentioned Heinrich's name, she was wrapping up some business with an Eteno that clearly had seen plenty of battles. The thing that got Siran's attention about the individual was the Eteno's cybernetic implants. When the Eteno cyborg departed, Siran approached the Vaikan. "Hello, kid, see anything you want in the stall?" she asked. "Actually," Siran asked, thinking a moment, before continuing, "Actually, I heard you mention a name earlier, "Heinrich Von Brandt", what do you know about him?" "Know the guy?" the Vaikan asked. Siran responded, "You could...say that." She wasn't going to reveal the extent of how she "knows" Heinrich to the Vaikan, but she really needed to know what she knew. If Heinrich still lived, maybe... "Alright, kid. I overheard from some Iggies that they were in pursuit of a man who allegedly was researching dangerous sentient AIs, and was therefore being chased down to be arrested. However, the old man wound up in pirate territory. The Iggies were unable to keep pursuing him, so they broke off." Siran took some time to process this new information. This sounded dangerous: she realized that if something went wrong if she went after Heinrich, she could end up offlined...permanently. But, then, she remembered the inner conflict that plagued her before Krikor helped her suppress it...and felt it rise up again. Maybe, she realized, this could be her one chance to settle this conflict once and for all. "Which way was that again?" The Vaikan looked surprised. "You're not actually THINKING of heading that way, are you?" "There's something I got to do...and I have to talk to Heinrich to do it." "Is it worth risking your own hide for it?" Siran just shook her head. "More than you know..." She then looked around and saw some food in the stall. "How much rations can I trade this for?" She then put the scrap on the table. "Just take some," the Vaikan said, giving Siran a small box of them, "You'll need your strength where you're going." Siran nodded to the Vaikan, and departed, heading back to her ship. Once back, she returned to the cockpit. After taking a moment to re-familiarize herself with the controls, she turned the ship on, and, after taking some time to start up, due to having not been flown in almost a year, the ship finally started up, and lifted off. Chapter 3: Doubts and Dreams The ship neared the border of the pirate territory. She got the ship low to the ground, to prevent the pirate detection equipment from easily picking her up. Soon, she crossed the border into pirate territory. She moved swiftly along the ground, to avoid attracting too much attention. When she found an unpopulated area, which seemed devoid of any form of life, she landed the ship there, in order to prevent its discovery. Even so, she sealed the ship behind her when she exited, and, keeping her Plasma Carbine close, slowly made her way through the area. After a short while of searching, she found what appeared to be a crowd of civilians, trying to live out their lives in the pirate-controlled sector. Siran approached the group, but a few guards rose their weapons at her. "Hey, hey! What's that for?!" she asked, shocked. "Who da hell are ya?" one of the men, an old human male with..a shotgun, making him look like the old coot from a Western flick. "I don't mean you any harm. My name's Siran Narek and-" "Siran Narek? Ya mean like the young lady ol' Krikor told us about?" Siran's eyes widened. "You know where Krikor is?" "Did: guy up and left a couple days ago: day later, a group of Vaikan in weird armor showed up and asked about him: said he and his Delson friend were carryin' a 'powerful artifact'...Don't know what they was talkin' about: all he and Dur had was a data chip of some kind: looked mighty old though..." Chapter 4: Closing In Chapter 5: Into the Breach Chapter 6: Revelations Chapter 7: Freedom Category:Articles by User:IceBite Category:Stories